General Motors shares have soared after the company announced it would be more profitable and return more money to shareholders.
Shares in America’s biggest automaker rose more than 2% after it raised its 2016 earnings forecast by 25 cents to between $5.25 and $5.75 per share.
GM also plans to raise its stock buyback program by 80% to $9 billion and extend it to the end of 2017.
In total it plans to give $16 billion back to shareholders by the end of 2017.
GM executive Mary Barra said: “We made significant progress executing our strategic plan and the results are being demonstrated through our improved earnings.”
Shares in rival automaker Ford fell more than 3.5% after it said US margins could hit a plateau of 9.5%.
Ford said on January 12 it would give a special $1 billion dividend, and that it expects pre-tax profit of between $10 billion and $11 billion in 2015.
However, this figure was at the lower end of analyst expectations.
